Background information
"The photo volume 'Noghata: Echoes of Coal and Steel. 1983' by Japanese photographer Koji ONAKA was published as the fifth title in a series on Japan that was designed to be six volumes in total. The complete series consists of the following titles:
#1: Tanno KIYOSHI: Coal Miners' Housing Joban Coal Mine. 1963,
#2: Ito SHINICHI: Yubari Town and Landscape. 2007,
#3: Tanno KIYOSHI: Shounai Rice Plains. 1978,
#4: Nakai HIROYASU: Gay in Shinjuku. 1978,
#5: Koji ONAKA: Nohgata: Echoes of Coal and Steel. 1983,
#6: Fujati SUSUMU: Rappongi Soul Embassy. 1980
During a photography workshop at the CAMP Gallery conducted by Daido MORIYAMA together with other photographers, the young Japanese photographer, Koji ONAKA, returned to his birthplace Noghata (Nogata) on Kyushu Island for two weeks in 1983. With his 'Canon F-1', a 35mm lens and a Tri-X film, he shot the images contained in this book of photographs, 'Noghata: Echoes of Coal and Steel. 1983', which was published as volume #5 of the 'Memoria Grafica' series. Noghata (Fukuoka Prefecture) is located near Chikuho, the oldest mining region in Japan, and was the subject of Ken DOMON's legendary photo book 'The Children of Chikuho'. Koji ONAKA writes in his afterword (unfortunately published only in Japanese) that he was born in the same year that the volume 'The Children of Chikuho' by Ken DOMON was published (1960).Content
This book of photographs, 'Noghata: Echoes of Coal and Steel. 1983' by Koji ONAKA, deals with his hometown and consists of documentary-style B&W photographs taken with an analog camera, 'Canon F-1'; the coal and steel mentioned in the title do not appear. Rather, ONAKA documents the burgeoning, economically vibrant small town life. The photo book is matte printed; ONAKA's photos look great on the not-quite-white paper." (© Richard G. SPORLEDER)
- Format
- Softcover (no dust jacket, as issued), 18 x 24 x1 cm., 80 pp., approx 53 b/w ills., afterword and history of Chikuho, in Japanese only.
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